


Starting Anew

by thewightknight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Memory Loss, Memory Wipe, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22116991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: “Hello. I am C-3PO, protocol droid, human-cyborg relations. And who might you be?”
Relationships: C-3PO/R2-D2
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Starting Anew

There is no period of adjustment when a droid comes online. Systems synch in nanoseconds and the droid is ready to serve. Anything else would be inefficient.

His designation is C-3PO, and he is a protocol droid. He is fluent in over six million forms of communication and knew the culture and customs of the species associated with each language. This is his first day of operation. He has not been assigned to a particular being, so he will assist as needed.

His immediate surroundings are odd. He appears to be in some kind of cave. The only other being in attendance is another droid, a white and blue R2 unit.

“Hello,” he says. “I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. And who might you be?” Politeness i hardwired into his system.

The R2 unit wheels back, doing a half circle, before coming to a halt in front of him.

 _You don’t remember me?_ It beeps in binary. _I’m your best friend!_

“Well, I’d certainly remember if I had a best friend,” C-2PO says, then stepped back when the R2 unit lets loose a string of expletives that no droid should ever know, let alone utter. “How rude!” he says. “We’ve only just met.”

This leads to another string of foul beeps as the R2 unit rocks back and forth on its two stumpy legs.

“Are you sure you’re functioning properly?” C-3PO asks when he’d wound down. This is a mistake. He files that away for future reference, under ‘don’t ever do this again’. This time the R2 unit doesn’t look like it will calm itself in any amount of reasonable time, and C-3PO is starting to wonder if he should go look for someone who might take the unit in for diagnostics, when all of a sudden it goes completely still, then starts up again with an excited whistle.

“You’re receiving a transmission? From whom?”

###

C-3PO is hesitant to interrupt the humans but R2 insists. He prompts his vocoder to make the sound of a clearing throat, something his programming suggests as a way to get attention if needed. It seems to work--all the humanoids turn to face him

“Excuse me,” he begins. “I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. I’ve come across this R2 unit here and ….”

“No luck restoring his memory, R2?” one of the humans asks, interrupting him. The R2 unit beeps a negative, a sad trill that conveyed meaning even without words. After an extremely long pause (two to three whole seconds!) it follows up with a stream of binary, resuming its back-and-forth rocking, and when C-3PO doesn’t instantly begin translating it shoots off another series of insults.

“Well, I never. It would serve you right if I didn’t tell them,” C-3PO tells it.

“Threepio, what is it?” one of the humanoids—the one with the dark, curly hair—asks.

“Oh, well this R2 unit says he is receiving a transmission from a Master Luke. Do any of you know who that might be?”

**Author's Note:**

> The whole "They're dead! No wait! They're not!" bits really cheapened the emotional impact for me, especially on the second viewing. It would have been much more poignant this way. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing. If you liked this, please share! Kudos are love and comments are always appreciated.


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